Court: United States District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division Court: United States District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division

Wexler Wallace is currently representing clients who suffered damages through an alleged facially-illegal pyramid scheme perpetrated by the purported multi-level marketing (MLM) company ViSalus, Inc.

Plaintiffs in this case assert that they and other similarly situated individuals were enticed to pay upwards of $999 to join ViSalus’ “Independent Promoter (IP) Sales Force,” which allowed them to sell the company’s products.

However, Plaintiffs allege that the company’s true purpose was to induce as many people as possible to sign up as IPs in order to increase the profits of those at the top of the pyramid. Once plaintiffs had enlisted, they discovered that recruiting other people to become IPs was the only way to regain their investment or turn a profit. Because the pyramid grossly rewarded recruitment and early entry into the system over actual sales, ViSalus created an inevitable tiny class of winners at the top and a huge pool of losers at the bottom.

The complaint alleges that ViSalus violated the federal Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and Plaintiffs seek to recover their investment and statutory damages from ViSalus, its promoters, and a group of professional marketers who took part in the recruiting effort.